Texas journalist and activist Denise McVea says her white male detractors are why people do not read history anymore. The genre has been hijacked.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. A book about the true identity of the woman who inspired the Yellow Rose of Texas legend is causing a cantankerous stir inside Texas history communities-even before the book has been released to the general public.

According to legend, a fair-skinned black woman, Emily West, helped Texas win its independence from Mexico when she distracted Mexican general Antonio Lopez Santa on the San Jacinto battlefield during the Texas Revolution in April of 1836.

For decades, history buffs have described Emily West as a servant or slave and her method of distraction as a seduction. In some cases, she has been described as a prostitute.

Making Myth of Emily: Emily West de Zavala and the Yellow Rose of Texas Legend, presents research that shows Emily West de Zavala, the biracial wife of the vice president of Texas in 1836, was the inspiration for the Yellow Rose of Texas legend, but refutes that the woman sexually distracted Santa Anna. The first such book of its kind regarding the legend, the book states that the legend arose because of efforts to hide Emily West de Zavala's racial identity.

Many Texas historians and history buffs, once described by former Texas Historical Commission Executive Director as a snickering white menace, responded to McVea's research with outrage. For several weeks some men have posted increasingly hysterical messages to a popular Alamo history site, trying to convince people not to read the book.

But, the strategy may be backfiring. According to McVea, sales of the book have exploded since the men began posting to the website.

McVea, who is the executive director of the Auris Project, Inc., which is publishing the book, says that even she was surprised at the hostile response to her research, which she conducted for more than 10 years.

"When I started this project several years ago," she said, "I quickly learned that there were white male historians in Texas who simply were not open to hearing from a black woman about their precious legend. But I never expected them to expose their bias so publicly and with so much hatred. This is not everybody, mind you, but just a few people used to having their own way."

She also speculated that many of the attacks against her on the forum probably have something to do with the fact that the book exposes some questionable behavior by a few prominent historians regarding the authenticity of documents presented to the public, and other potential scandals.

"Suffice it to say that there are a few history communities or institutions that might stand to be embarrassed by some of the research in the book," McVea said. "I guess if I were them, Id be hysterical, too."

To visit the Yellow Rose of Texas thread at the Alamo Site forum, go to http://www.thealamofilm.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

To learn more about Making Myth of Emily, go to:
http://www.aurisproject.org/Books/Myth/makingmyth.htm

“The
Current is Stronger’: Images of Racial Oppression and Resistance in North Texas
Black Art During the 1920s and 1930s ” in Bruce A. Glasrud and Cary D.
Wintz, eds., The Harlem Renaissance in the West: The New Negroes’ Western
Experience (New York:
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2011)

“Dallas,
1989-2011,” in Richardson Dilworth, ed. Cities in American Political History (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2011)

(With
John Anthony Moretta and Keith J. Volanto), Keith J. Volonto and Michael
Phillips, eds., The American Challenge: A New History of the United States, Volume II. (Wheaton, Il.: Abigail Press,
2012).

“Texan by
Color: The Racialization of the Lone Star State,” in David Cullen and Kyle
Wilkison, eds., The Radical Origins of the Texas Right (College Station: University of Texas
Press, 2013).

He
is currently collaborating, with longtime journalist Betsy Friauf, on a history
of African American culture, politics and black intellectuals in the Lone Star
State called God Carved in Night: Black Intellectuals in Texas and the World
They Made.

Followers

About Me

I received my Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin. My first book, "White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001," won the Texas State Historical Commission's T.R. Fehrenbach Award for best work on Texas history in 2007. My second book, "The House Will Come to Order: How the Texas Speaker Became a Power in State and National Politics" will be published by the University of Texas Press March 1, 2010.
My beautiful boy Dominic was born on May 30, 2003. He's an avid reader and loves Harry Potter and Star Wars.
I am a frustrated political liberal, holding Democrats in contempt but too suspicious about the competence of the Green Party to make the leap.
I am married to a wonderful woman named Betsy Friauf who was my editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram 20 years ago. We will be writing books together.
My only appointment television is "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" and "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." I also love to cook when I have the time.